Great coffee at your home - on a budget

My last week's post about instant coffee sparked some comments on my facebook profile, mostly from people who drink it and enjoy it. I'd like to dispel some common myths about good coffee.

La Marzocco Linea. It doesn't get much better than this.
If you need to ask the price, it's more than you're willing to spend.

Myth 1: To make a good coffee you need a machine that costs your yearly earnings.

Wrong!

While a top of the line espresso machine is certainly a requirement if you wish to pull top of the line espresso shots, that's one very very specific way of making coffee.

So, can you imagine how much it costs to make some of the best coffee humanly possible at home? If not tens of thousands of Euros, than how much? Thousands? Certainly not hundreds, that would be impossible, right?

You need 18 kn. That's just slightly over 2€, and that's the price you'll pay for the cheapest French press (that will do the job perfectly fine) in your closest Offertissima store. IKEA will sell you their 1L model for less than 10€, and you'll find some of the best models on Amazon in the $10-$30 range. A well-made turkish coffee can also be a top quality gourmet coffee, and you might already have the equipment at home.

(Note: French press is a rather unknown and rarely-used method of making coffee in Croatia. You'll often see it sold as a "tea maker").

Now, espresso can be a rabbit hole. It can suck you in for thens of thousands in gear, and it's also very skill-sensitive. However, you can get decent espresso for a fraction of the cost of the top one, and there are even some low-cost solutions which make true espresso. Or, alternatively, you might be satisfied with an Aeropress or Moka pot which will produce coffee not unlike espresso for even less money.

However, there's one thing you'll need in any case, besides a coffeemaker: a grinder. Freshly-ground (and freshly-roasted) coffee is incomparable to pre-ground one that's been sitting for a while. And that leads us to...

Franck's Guatemala - a "premium single origin" coffee

Myth 2: Good coffee is expensive and you can't really taste much of a difference

Wrong!

Coffee is a natural, perishable produce - not a product. Its' quality vastly degrades within minutes once it's ground. And minutes will pass before it's vacuum-packed, becauseit needs to release CO2, otherwise the bags would burst. And as CO2 exits the grounds, the aromatic oils and flavors also evaporate...

Which is not surprising when you think about economics of it. Most of the coffee that you can buy in the supermarket is a commodity. Having it pre-ground increases its' market penetration, because no longer did it require another device (grinder), and most customers are OK with it. It's an approach that sold more coffee at times when any coffee was a luxury.

Grinders make a difference. A huge one. Even the cheapest blade grinder from the store (in Croatia, that would be a Sinbo grinder from Konzum, 99 kn) will make an incredible (and very tangible) difference in your coffee. However, you'll get much better results from burr grinders. For $10 (delivery included) you can get a Turkish coffee grinder from Istanbul from eBay, delivered at your doorstep. Or, if you're willing to spend a bit more money, a Hario Slim will get you any grind you want, for $25, and at reasonable consistency. Now, you don't need to instantly buy yourself a Mazzer Jolly, but unless you own a top of the line espresso setup, a grinder should probably be the most expensive piece of equipment you should buy. You will get best results that way.

That's also the problem of some coffees, like depicted Franck's Guatemala and Costa Rica. They are beautifully packaged, and marketed as premium single origin coffees. They also cost twice as much as Franck's regular coffee, and many people - including me - bought into the marketing, splurged for a pack, and then ended up mildly disappointed, feeling that - while that coffee is somewhat better than their regular offering - it is not nearly significant enough to justify the cost difference.

And that's the truth. While these beans might be good when freshly roasted (and while they're still... you know, beans), when you buy them in store they will already be stale - because they're pre-ground to the fine Turkish grind. And most of the stuff that was good about them is no longer there, even when you brew your first coffee from a freshly opened pack.

You can get the best coffee in the world, but it won't mean for much if it's pre-ground. However, that's only a part of the story. What kind of coffee are you drinking? If you answered with a brand name (e.g. Lavazza), then I got some bad news for you.

Coffee is a grown product. Similar to wine, the result will depend on the harvest. Wine grown in different region is different. And it's different from one year to another. And also, sometimes the harvest goes bad and there's very little produce from the region. Big roasters will get their beans from a variety of regions, roast it and pack it under their brand name. Now, there will be some differences each year depending on the commodity market, and that's why you usually won't see them advertise their content in detail - they can't guarantee that it will be the same in future.

In combination with time (distribution chain can take months), other beans and (sometimes) a darker roast, those differences are masked, but also some flavor is lost. However, the result is still far better than pre-ground coffee.

Specialty coffee roasters are usually small operations, and their priorities are usually shifted. Few of them try to compete with the cheapest large roaster blends. However, when it comes to the more expensive coffees, things change. We're not talking about the ultra-expensive Blue Mountain or Kopi Luwak coffees. The thing about small roasters is that they can often offer coffee that can challenge or top the finest high-volume blends - such as Illy or Julius Meinl - and top their freshness, while being priced at 50% or so of their high-volume counterparts.

The only danger is that that same coffee might not be available next week.

Example: Freshly-roasted bag of coffee from Teneo (200g, 39 kn) is vastly better than Franck's pre-ground Guatemala and Costa Rica (250g, 35 kn), and could be - in my opinion - compared to Illy (250g, 83 kn).

That still sounds expensive? Well, a 250g can of Nescafe classic is 60 kn, and a 200g can of Jacobs Cronat gold is 55 kn. That's probably a more interesting comparison.

If an espresso at a cafe costs 7 kn, and it's approx. 7 grams of coffee, and you can get better results at home than in most cafes... well, that changes a few things, doesn't it?

And even if you go on the lower end - with the cheapest and as freshly roasted beans as you can find - you will get much better results than any pre-ground at this price.

It's not about being expensive, it's about getting more for what you pay for.

So how much does it really cost?

Let's examine some ultra-cheap setups (coffeemaker, grinder and beans), and how much would they really cost you - for Turkish coffee, French press and Moka pot. The best bang for your money.

Option 1 is what you can get with online shopping and visiting small shops, it's both cheaper and will get you better results. Option 2 is supermarket items ONLY.

A budget wooden burr grinder

Turkish coffee 1: Turkish coffee pot (Konzum, 35 kn, enameled steel), Turkish coffee manual grinder (eBay, $10 = approx. 65 kn), coffee (what's fresh at Teneo, 200g 39 kn). 139 kn total.
Turkish coffee 2: Turkish coffee pot (Konzum, 35 kn, enameled steel), Sinbo blade grinder (Konzum, 99 kn), coffee (Spar Premium, Interspar, 500g 50 kn). 185 kn total.

French press 1: Cheapest French press (Offertissima, 18 kn), wooden burr coffee manual grinder (eBay, $12,50 = approx. 82 kn), coffee (what's fresh at Teneo, 200g 39 kn). 139 kn total.
French press 2: Cheapest French press (Offertissima, 18 kn), Sinbo blade grinder (Konzum, 99 kn), coffee (Spar Premium, Interspar, 500g 50 kn). 167 kn total.

Moka pot 1: 3-cup pot (Emmezeta or IKEA, 99 kn), wooden burr coffee manual grinder (eBay, $12,50 = approx. 82 kn), coffee (what's fresh at Teneo, 200g 39 kn). 220 kn total.
Moka pot 2: 3-cup pot (Emmezeta or IKEA, 99 kn), Sinbo blade grinder (Konzum, 99 kn), coffee (Spar Premium, Interspar, 500g 50 kn). 248 kn total.

Blade grinders are not recommended, but they are the
only cheap option in Croatian brick&mortar stores

It is assumed you own a stove and some way to heat water. You can make similar calculations for moka, or whatever is available at your area.

Either way, you can get the cheapest setup of that sort for less than half the price of a Nescafe Dolce Gusto Piccolo machine... and get better coffee and not get into the proprietary pod system. If you've got more to spend, you can get yourself even better stuff - such as a more reliable and consistent grinder, or perhaps a milk frother or something. As noted, the grinder will make the biggest difference regarding your coffee taste.

That's all you need to make coffee that will be better than what is served in 80% of Zagreb's cafes (though of a different style, unless you choose moka option). Not gonna break your bank. It's tasty and affordable. Good coffee gear can be expensive, but it doesn't need to be.